Comments | lilmissnever: Not A Dry Eye

lilmissnever

Not A Dry Eye

Dec 22, 2014 22:17

Remember that time it took me months to recover from my retinal detachment and my eye became red and itchy and painful because I had a corneal defect that would heal up during the night and then rip right off when I opened my lids in the morning? It turns out that this is "dry eye." It's what happens when the body stops producing the oily element ( Read more... )

retinal detachment, pain

Comments 15

usekh December 23 2014, 08:55:46 UTC

My mum and aunt both have that issue. Fingers crossed it turns out well for you.

lilmissnever December 24 2014, 03:46:59 UTC

My doctor appears to think that it may go away in a week or so. I have been diligent in the application of eye drops.

ilcylic December 23 2014, 13:12:43 UTC

We'll make a good pair, I'm pulling hard here at the end of the year for the "crankiest boy in the world" trophy.

*packs grease for your eyes*

lilmissnever December 24 2014, 03:47:49 UTC

If you're going to be cranky, you can be cranky in my spare bedroom. J and I have put in blackout shades and now it is possible to sleep late.

vicious_wench December 23 2014, 16:14:51 UTC

Guh. Corneal pain is excruciating -- I have an autoimmune disease which produces corneal lesions when it flares up, so I know that part first-hand. I'm so sorry you're dealing with more eye issues; hope the dry eye resolves soon!

lilmissnever December 24 2014, 03:49:29 UTC

Ick! I am sorry to hear that. The two times I have had dry eyes have been bad enough. I have a friend who had the corneal resurfacing done. It fixed his problem, but the process involved a jaunty eyepatch. I am over jaunty eyepatches. I declare 2015 to be a jaunty eyepatch-free zone.

voxsjournal December 23 2014, 18:02:22 UTC

This is awful, and kind of horrifying (I think you take secret pleasure in disturbing your poor readers with nightmarish eye scenarios).

It will be my Christmas wish that your eye heals, quickly and perfectly, and that 2015 will be a surgery- and pain-free year for you.

lilmissnever December 24 2014, 04:18:27 UTC

I take a certain amount of pleasure in the gory details. If I must suffer, so shall you, my largely theoretical reader. This is still a place to write the sorts of things that I cannot write elsewhere, and lengthy descriptions of my ludicrous eye problems fall into that category.

2014 has not always been pleasant, but I have done many difficult things that I had been putting off.

Re: Quentin Coldwater voxsjournal January 9 2015, 14:54:56 UTC

I just re-read The Magicians and now I'm wondering if trying to figure out anything about Q is kind of a lost cause, since Grossman seemed to change the character whenever he felt like it. He likes hard work, then complains about hard work. He feels something, anything at all...no, wait, it's gone--oops! It's back! Sort of...maybe. Okay, so he's chronically disappointed. Nothing has any meaning for him. He loves Alice, but sleeps with Janet, and maybe Eliot? Why? Because he's bored and dissatisfied, as far as I can tell.

It was good to read again, though. I'd forgotten much of it, and I really like Alice a lot. Will now read The Magician King again, fully prepared to cringe for Julia.

Oh, and the fight seen between Alice and Martin, when she changes into all manner of beasts, is that a reference to Tam Lin? I couldn't quite work out if it meant anything, since in the legend the girl's name is often Janet, or if it was just kind of thrown in because, well, why not?

Re: Quentin Coldwater lilmissnever January 13 2015, 02:15:51 UTC

I'm not sure that consistency is something we should expect from characters, or people, for that matter. This is possibly because I am reading Robert Kurzban's book about the modular mind, which talks extensively about hypocrisy as an essential human trait.

I think that the fight in which Alice turns into all manner of beasts is a nod to The Sword in the Stone, though I like the idea that Grossman is referencing Tam Lin. In Tam Lin, if I recall correctly, it's the Queen of Fairies who turns into Tam Lin into all kinds of things in an effort to get Janet to let go of him. I listened to a lot of Steeleye Span as a kid.

Alice (like Janet) is clearly better than Quentin in every way. She is smarter, more talented, and more determined to become a magician. I always thought it was a commentary on Quentin's cluelessness that he fails to notice this much of the time.

Re: Quentin Coldwater voxsjournal January 13 2015, 16:13:43 UTC

Kurzban looks like the kind of thing that I'd avoid, because it brings up the (for me) essential question of identity and I don't think is very kind to it. Still, I'd argue that in narratives of any kind, there has to be some kind of coherence in character representation for it to have any meaning at all ( ... )

Re: Quentin Coldwater lilmissnever January 13 2015, 21:07:53 UTC

I am very interested in Kurzban's theory that there are parts of the brain that have evolved to give us bad information because it is socially advantageous to us in some ways. Spirituality is often an area in which we have had very different points of view. I am not at all bothered by the idea that we are animated suits of flesh, often acting hypocritically and inconsistently on bad information. I think that if we understand this about ourselves (and others), then we can take some measures to account for it (in ourselves) and be more tolerant of it (in others ( ... )

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